Sunday, November 13, 2016

KAWECO LEATHER TRAVELER'S PEN CASE REVIEW

Kaweco already offered quite an extensive variety of pen pouches and slip cases, some even specifically made to fit their smaller Sport and Lilliput pens. But if you wanted to carry more than two or three pens at once, you had to look elsewhere. Since a couple months, they added a larger 6 pen case to their product catalogue: the Kaweco Traveller's six pen case.

The Traveller's case is a zippered case, similar in functionality and design to the larger 10-, 20-, 40-pen folio's that are commonly used for when you want to take your entire collection with you. The form factor and size is comparable to that of the Visconti 6 pen case, but functionally it's quite different. Wether you prefer one or the other depends on your specific needs and expectations, but more on that later...

First thing to notice is the nice cognac-colored suede leather that this case is made from. It's warm and soft to the touch, and it shows some natural imperfections. Of course it'll get scuffed and scratched up more with use, which'll give it an even more rustic look over time. There's no branding apart from the Kaweco logo at the bottom right corner of the case. The brown zipper unzips smoothly, and the front flap opens up towards the top like a steno notepad.

The inside of the case is made from soft beige microfiber fabric, and has a flap in the same material that protects the pens during transit. It can hold up to six pens in the elastic loops, and some other paraphernalia inside the front flap pocket.

The pocket on the front flap is quite tight as well, but it'll hold thin, small objects (a box of cartridges, a short pencil or an eraser,...).

At first sight, the Kaweco traveler's case doesn't seem to be made specifically for their smaller pens. But unfortunately there are some restrictions when it comes to the size of the pens it can hold. That does make sense, since the biggest 'full-sized' Kaweco pen will still fit this case without a problem.

But when you branch out to different brands, you'll end up with certain pens that won't fit (A TWSBI 580 for example). The biggest pen I could get to fit measured around 14cm (5.5In) long, and 1.2cm (0.47In) in diameter, There might be room for something a little bigger, but it'll be a tight squeeze. It makes sense that Kaweco looks to fulfill the needs for their own pens first, but it's a missed opportunity to reach a more general audience of collectors and pen enthousiasts that also like larger pens.

A second downside -for me- is that there's only one row of elastic bands. I'm quite obsessed with keeping my pens pristine (maybe a bit TOO much), so I'd prefer two straps per pen to keep them from moving around and banging into eachother. The elastic bands are tight, but not too tight. Something like a TWSBI Eco, which has a fairly wide barrel, will still fit (albeit snugly).

The overall form factor isn't much smaller than that of the Visconti Dreamtouch case, yet the Visconti case can even take much larger -even some oversized- pens.

Kaweco certainly did a good job on the Traveller's case, but it has its flaws. Mainly the size can prove to be an issue, but if you stick to Kaweco's pens, or smaller pens in general, you should be fine. If you want a case for larger pens, I still think the Visconti Dreamtouch case is one of the best options out there. The Traveller's case doesn't come cheap, at 100 EUR/ 120 USD for this 6 pen version (there are larger versions out there but I couldn't find them online), that's considerably more than the Visconti case which costs only 85 EUR here in europe (prices in the US seem to be higher).

Note: this pen was lent to me by Kaweco, free of charge, so I could write this review. I was in no way influenced in the making of this review, the opinions shared in this review are completely my own! This post does not contain affilate links.